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The SEO Services Report

The 2019 SEO Services Report
Brian Dean

Written by Brian Dean

We surveyed 1,200 business owners to better understand the current state of the SEO services industry.

In this new report you’ll learn:

  • How much people spend on SEO.
  • Where people find SEO services.
  • Why people choose one agency over another.
  • Why people decide to leave their current SEO provider.
  • Lots more.

Without further ado, let’s get into our findings.

Highlights and Key Statistics:

1. American small businesses spend an average of $497.16 per month on SEO services.

2. We found a strong correlation between higher spending and higher client satisfaction in small business SEO. In fact, clients that spent over $500/month were 53.3% more likely to be “extremely satisfied” compared to those that spent less than $500/month.

3. Most small business owners find SEO providers through referrals, Google searches and online reviews. A small fraction of SEO clients (8%) found their current provider from online advertising.

4. When it comes to choosing a provider, 74% of business owners consider an SEO provider’s reputation “very” or “extremely” important. Monthly cost and the provider’s own Google rankings were also noted as important factors.

5. On the other hand, an agency’s presence on social media and client case studies were seen as relatively unimportant factors in deciding who to work with.

6. Most small business owners expect SEO agencies to help them drive immediate growth to their customer base and bottom line. Specifically, 83% of our respondents stated that SEO providers should be able to help them “access new customers”.

7. However, most small business owners don’t seem to value a provider’s ability to grow a social media following. In fact, only 26% of respondents cited “getting followers on social media sites” as extremely important.

8. Overall SEO client satisfaction is decidedly low. Only 30% would recommend their current SEO provider to a friend or colleague. However, we found that client satisfaction among marketing agencies was higher than freelancers.

9. Not surprisingly, clients are highly satisfied with SEO providers that help them get more traffic and customers. Also, 61% of business owners cite that “increasing brand awareness” is important to them.

10. An SEO provider’s location also seems to play a key role in whether or not a client chooses to work with or stay with an SEO agency. 78% of US-based small business owners consider their provider’s location a “very” or “extremely” important consideration.

11. 44% of small business owners leave their current SEO provider largely due to “Dissatisfaction with business results”. 34% cite “customer service/ responsiveness” as a key reason they left. Only 21% leave because they were pitched by a competitor.

12. SEO provider turnover is high. 65% of our panel stated that they’ve worked with several different SEO providers. 25% have worked with 3 or more providers.

We have more detailed and expanded findings on our results below.

Average Monthly SEO Spend is <$500 Per Month

On average, small businesses spend $497.16 per month on SEO services.

The average cost of SEO services is less than $500/month

However, we did discover a large range in SEO spending. Half of our respondents reported that they spend less than $1,000 per year on SEO. 14% spend $5k+ per year. Only 2% spend over $25k/year.

Small business SEO spending varies greatly

We also found that agencies tend to get paid significantly more than freelance SEO providers.

Specifically, agencies were 2x more likely to get paid $1k-$2k/month than freelancers, which mostly get paid in the $500-$1k per month range.

SEO agencies get paid significantly more than SEO freelancers

Agencies also tend to dominate the high-end pricing range (clients that spend $10k-$25k/year on SEO).

Agencies are 8X more likely to get paid $10k-$25k/year than freelancers

As you can see, 24% of small businesses that work with agencies spend between $10k-$25k/year, compared with 2% that work with a freelance SEO.

Key Takeaway: The average small business owner spends $497.16 per month on SEO services. Also, small business owners spend considerably more with SEO agencies than freelance SEO providers.

Monthly Spend Is Tied To Client Satisfaction

When it comes to SEO, do you “get what you pay for”?

According to our data, yes.

Specifically, we discovered that clients spending over $500/month were 53.3% more likely to consider themselves “extremely satisfied” compared to people that spend less than $500/month.

Higher SEO spending is correlated with higher client satisfaction

We also found a clear relationship between dissatisfaction levels and cost.

Specifically, business owners that spent less than $500/month were 75% more likely to be dissatisfied than those that invested at least $500/month on SEO.

SEO dissatisfaction is correlated with lower SEO spending

This relationship played out whether a client worked with a freelancer, agency, or a mix of both.

Key Takeaway: Small business owners that spend more than $500/month are significantly happier with their SEO provider than those that spend less than $500/month.

Referrals and Google Searches Are the Top Ways Businesses Are Finding SEOs

When someone wants to hire an SEO agency, where do they look?

According to our panel, most people find potential SEO service providers through word of mouth, Google searches and online review platforms (like Yelp).

Most clients find SEO services via referrals, Google search and review sites

On the other hand, relatively few find SEO providers through online or offline advertising, or referrals from other vendors (like web designers or writers).

If you’re an agency owner or a freelancer, this is a key finding. If you know where small business owners look to find SEO service providers, you can invest resources to make sure your business has a presence in those places.

Key Takeaway: 28% of small business owners find SEO services through word of mouth, 26% use Google and 18% use online review platforms like Yelp. Only 11% find SEO providers via online or offline advertising.

Reputation and Cost are Key Factors Involved In Choosing a Provider

Once someone finds a list of potential providers, how do they decide which one to go with?

We discovered that reputation, cost and a provider’s own Google rankings influenced their decision the most.

Reputation and cost are key factors involved in choosing a provider

Small business owners cited client case studies and the provider’s social media presence as significantly less important.

However, even these relatively minor factors played a role in whether or not someone decided to work with a particular SEO provider. For example, 55% of our panel cited “referrals” as an important consideration.

Referrals influence more than 50% choosing a provider

Although the importance of referrals pales in comparison to a provider’s reputation (55% vs. 74%), it’s still something that influenced more than half of the people we spoke to.

Interestingly, we found that a provider’s location mattered quite a bit.

Only 51% knew exactly where their SEO provider was located.

Half of SEO clients don't know where their SEO provider is located

However, 78% of US-based small businesses stated that knowing their provider’s location was “extremely” or “very” important (with 46% stating that a known location was “extremely important”).

78% of small business owners state SEO provider's location as 'Important'

If you provide SEO services, making your location clear and obvious may help you land more SEO clients.

Here’s a great example from Siege Media, who actually includes a picture of their office on their about page:

SiegeMedia – Make location clear

Key Takeaway: Small business owners largely decide on an SEO provider based on their online reputation. Location also seems to play a role. 78% our panel noted that location was a factor that helped them decide whether or not to work with an agency or freelancer.

The Vast Majority of Business Owners Expect SEO Services To Increase Customers and Traffic

We asked our panel about their expectations. Specifically, we asked them which benefits from working with an SEO provider were most important to them.

They stated that “accessing new customers”, “increasing traffic”, “increasing brand awareness” and “building trust” as most important.

SEO clients value new customers, traffic and brand awareness

“Gaining social media followers”, “increasing number of email subscribers” and “helping to attract new talent” were cited as relatively unimportant.

In fact, even though this is a common goal set by marketing agencies, only 26% of respondents cited “getting followers on social media sites” as extremely important.

Only 26% state getting followers on social media sites as extremely important

This finding is especially key for SEO providers that are taking on new clients.

For example, a newly-hired SEO provider that says: “Our first step is going to be to get more likes on your Facebook page” isn’t speaking their client’s language.

On the other hand, kicking off the client-provider relationship with: “I look forward to helping you get more targeted traffic and customers” will likely result in a more satisfied client.

Needless to say, for the relationship to last, you need to deliver on those promises (more on that later). But it does help to understand what clients hope to get out of SEO so you can mold your services and reports based on that.

Key Takeaway: SEO clients value an SEO provider’s ability to land them new clients, increase traffic and build brand awareness. However, only 26% of SEO clients want their providers to help them increase their social media following.

Overall Satisfaction With SEO Services Is Low

We asked out panelists to rate their current SEO provider (or the last SEO provider they worked with) using the Net Promoter Score.

The results were markedly low.

First off, we found that only 30% of small business owners would recommend their current SEO provider.

Only 30% of small business owners would recommend their current SEO provider

Importantly, 30% of our respondents considered themselves “detractors”. Which means they would leave a negative review for their last or current SEO provider.

In fact, the SEO services industry as a whole has an NPS score of 0, which is considered “not likely to recommend”.

The SEO services industry has an NPS score of 0

When we broke down the NPS scores among agencies, freelancers, and a combination of freelancer and agency, we discovered that agencies had a higher average NPS score than freelancers.

Agencies had a higher average NPS score than freelancers

However, all three types of services had fairly low NPS scores.

Key Takeaway: Only 30% of clients would recommend their SEO service provider.

Clients Cite Lack of Education and Resources as Top Reasons for Low Satisfaction Levels

NPS is a helpful benchmark. However, NPS can only tell you so much. In other words, it’s difficult to understand why SEO services have such low levels of satisfaction.

That’s why we decided to dig deeper into this finding.

And when we dug a bit deeper to understand more about what’s happening, we uncovered a few surprising insights.

First, many unhappy SEO clients fully or partially blamed themselves.

Specifically, 50% stated that “I feel like I need more training to fully benefit from what SEO offers“ and 28% told us that they “do not have the staff resources to properly benefit from SEO”.

Many unhappy SEO clients cite 'training' and 'lack of resources' as reasons for leaving an SEO provider

This means that low satisfaction levels aren’t solely due to poor quality work. In fact, many clients are simply not in a position to benefit from SEO due to a lack of resources.

Plus, even clients with resources may not make SEO a priority because they don’t have the training to fully understand how SEO benefits them.

For example, let’s say an SEO provider wants to change a title tag on a client’s site. But it doesn’t happen because their developer is swamped with a website redesign. Also, this client may not understand that this simple change can increase their Google traffic due to a lack of training. So they don’t make that change a priority. And progress stalls.

Which leads us to our second interesting finding, the importance of reporting and transparency.

27% of the clients we spoke with agreed with the statement: “I find SEO to be confusing and unclear about what services they offer” 25% said that “I am not sure what I am really paying for with SEO.”

Many clients are unclear on how SEO benefits them

In other words, many clients are confused about what their provider is doing for them or what they’re getting out of the arrangement.

These are two points that could be remedied with better reporting and increased transparency.

I should point out that a fair number of clients stated that “I feel like SEO companies are very unreliable” and “I don’t think SEO is worth the money for my business.”

A small but significant percentage of small businesses consider SEO companies unreliable

Which means that a simple lack of results and ROI is often the culprit behind low client satisfaction levels.

However, as you just saw, there are usually non-performance based factors at play as well.

Key Takeaway: Low SEO service satisfaction is largely due to three main factors: 1. Lack of client education, 2. Lack of available resources and 3. Poor understanding of how SEO is helping them.

Turnover In the SEO Services Industry Is Extremely High

Likely due to low global satisfaction levels, we found high levels of turnover in the SEO services industry.

Specifically, we found that 65% of small business owners have worked with at least one SEO provider before:

65% of small businesses have worked with multiple SEO providers

We also found that 1/4th of our panel have worked with 3 or more providers:

25% of small business owners have worked with 3+ SEO providers

However, our data suggests that most clients don’t switch between SEO providers without careful consideration.

In fact, the clients in our panel have been working with their current SEO service for an average of 3 years. And lapsed clients give their service provider an average of 2 years to deliver before moving on.

Both existing clients and lapsed clients stay with SEO providers for 2+ years before switching

That said, we did discover a small subset of clients that do rapidly switch between different providers.

These “rapid switchers” tend to hire and fire SEO companies at a fever pitch.

For example, we classified 10% of our panelists as “rapid switchers” (worked with 3 or more SEO providers over the last year).

10% of people have worked with 3+ SEO providers over the last year

Key Takeaway: 65% of SEO clients have used two or more SEO services in the past. 25% have worked with 3+ providers.

Most SEO Clients Leave Due to Lack of Results and Cost

We wanted to know why people decide to leave their current SEO provider or switch to another company.

We referred to folks that worked with multiple SEO providers as “lapsed clients”. And we asked this subset of lapsed users what went into their decision.

Here were the results:

Reasons that people switch from current SEO provider

Not surprisingly, 82% of our respondents cited “Dissatisfaction with business results” as a factor in their decision. 81% reported that cost played a large role as well.

This suggests that clients don’t look at results in a vacuum. They also pay attention to the ROI that they’re getting from SEO. In other words, delivering results for clients is one thing. But it’s also important to demonstrate the ROI that SEO is having on their business. Otherwise, they may leave.

Although lack of results and cost were the two largest factors, they weren’t the only reasons that clients decide to stop working with an SEO provider.

In fact, 80% of lapsed clients stated that they found a better option on their own, which suggests that clients are happy to shop around for an alternative to their current SEO provider.

80% of lapsed clients say they 'Heard about a better option'

And 34% cited poor “customer service/ responsiveness” as a factor in their decision.

However, relatively few clients cited “pitched by a competitor” as a reason for leaving. In other words, as long as you can keep your clients happy, they’re not likely to leave. This remains true even if a competitor attempts to poach your client with a better offer.

We also asked our “lapsed clients” panelists to describe to us why they decided to stop using an SEO service. Here’s a sample of those responses:

Quotes from clients that stopped using an SEO service

We also asked a group of users that were happy with their SEO service (“existing clients”) what they liked about it. Here’s what they told us:

Quotes from clients that are happy with their SEO service

Key Takeaway: Most clients stop using an SEO service due to lack of results, cost and finding an alternative on their own.

Existing Clients are 2x More Likely to Be Web Savvy Than Lapsed Clients

We asked our panel to self-report their level of “web savviness”.

Here were the results:

Self-reported web savviness among SEO clients

As you can see, 37% of SEO clients consider their web savviness as “somewhat” or “not very”.

The upshot here is that many clients simply don’t have the web savviness to understand key digital marketing terms, like “title tags”, “CSS” and “backlinks”. Which suggests that SEO companies should largely avoid this sort of jargon in favor of terms like “leads”, “sales” and “first page Google rankings”.

In fact, this is backed up by another finding from our panel: that lapsed clients are significantly more likely to consider themselves not web savvy.

Specifically, we found that existing clients were 2x more likely to consider themselves “extremely web savvy” than lapsed clients.

Existing clients are 2X more likely to consider themselves 'Extremely web savvy'

This suggests that web savvy users are in a better position to understand how their SEO service is helping them. So they decide to stay. On the other hand, clients who aren’t web savvy may not fully understand what they’re getting from their SEO provider. So they decide to leave.

Key Takeaway: Clients that stick with their current SEO provider are 2x more likely to be “extremely web savvy” compared to those that leave or switch.

Conclusion

I hope this survey helped you get a better feel for the SEO services industry.

I’d like to thank Northstar Research Partners for helping me design and conduct this survey.

And if you’d like to learn more about how this survey was conducted, here’s a PDF of our study methods.

And now I’d like to hear from you:

What’s your main takeaway lesson from today’s survey?

Or maybe you have a question about something you read.

Either way, go ahead and leave a comment below with your thoughts.

263 Comments

  1. Junaid Avatar Junaidsays:

    Hi Brian,

    I love the depth and coverage of your posts!
    I have a question. Why do clients prefer SEOs with high rating/reviews over customer case studies?(which is a more solid proof about their work). Shouldn’t it have been the other way round.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thank you. Good question there. I think it’s because ratings and reviews are more objective than case studies.

      1. I would add that case studies can be more easily manipulated since they are compiled in-house. Ideally, reviews are from real customers and not the company itself.

    1. Maybe because they trust the Customer’s words(reviews) more than the Case studies which are written by the SEOs.

    1. It is because you are dealing with small businesses, not big companies. The relationship you have with the business owner is almost just as important as the results you get for them. Small business owners will take comfort knowing that you have had successful working relationships with other small businesses. It is no surprise that agencies have a higher average NPS score as they likely invest more in that area.

      HINT FOR FREELANCERS: Develop your people skills

      1. This.

        However, freelancers also need to develop their actual SEO skills:

        “12. SEO provider turnover is high. 65% of our panel stated that they’ve worked with several different SEO providers. 25% have worked with 3 or more providers.”

        If the results were there, then the retention would be, too. The fact is, so many people now claim to be SEO experts, yet very few can actually deliver the goods.

  2. Good post, I think there are a lot of companies that jump ship based on their own mindset thinking the can get better results going somewhere else even if they are getting amazing results. This is based on a phone call they get from a competitor telling them BS lies. There are two types of companies in the SEO industry; the honest hardworking ones that deliver results and the liars talking trash about what you are doing. I’ve also found that there will always be churn and when you take on a new client that is complaining about their current company most of the time they will complain about everyone.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Dean. Interestingly, we found that a relatively small number of clients switched because they were approached by a competing service. I think it may be that having a client poached is super memorable, so it stands out more. Do this day I still remember my clients telling me about so-and-so calling them and pitching their SEO services.

      But at least according to this panel, most clients leave because they’re simply not happy with the results they’re getting.

      1. The companies who contact me as they shop around for a new SEO vendor always cite cost, and often transparency. Rarely do they know if there’s a plan or strategy, so no real way to measure performance. As your survey shows, companies also struggle to implement changes; I think the higher level of satisfaction for budgets >$500 and for using full agencies are related.

  3. Great post Brian!

    Would be very interesting to compare these findings with businesses in other countries. Especially statistics such as 78% of U.S businesses cite the provider’s location as an important consideration. I wonder if this would be as high in a smaller country such as England.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Guy. Good question there. I’d be curious to see that as well. Something to consider for the 2020 report!

      1. I would much rather have help I could talk to and learn from that the typically faceless service offered by the trainees to small companies, yet I operate businesses which rarely meet clients making important decisions (in the UK!)

    1. I agree.

      According to SimilarWeb, 5.67% of this site’s traffic comes from the UK (vs 20.26% from the US), so a report on the UK market would be incredibly valuable to a lot of us UK-based Backlinko readers!

  4. Hey Brian,

    What a detailed report. Most SEO companies offers are expensive. A guest post on a quality domain will be above $400, link building by outreach is also expensive, sek audits on their own also come with their own price packages.

    I guess what am trying to sayvis that to see results fast, one will actually have to spend way more than $2000 per month, or have their own seo department in-house (additional expense)

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Mysson, I agree: when it comes to SEO services, you get what you pay for. And our data backs this up.

  5. This really shows that it’s best to go with someone who is super knowledgeable & informative and has does/looked at tons of case studies. Great post to learn from. Thanks again Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Darshana.

  6. Fabio Avatar Fabiosays:

    HI Brian ! beautiful post. Here in Europe and in particular in Italy the figures are slightly lower, we say that for 500 euros a month it is necessary to follow the client also on google ads in small companies with single site

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Fabio. That’s really interesting.

  7. Brian, thank you. We’re getting ready to launch a reboot as an Agency – particularly with our website, digital offering, etc. Focusing more on local SEO and reputation management. Your research gives us great insight into what matters most. We appreciate you, Brian, keep up the fine work sir.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Carlos, you’re welcome. That’s great timing then! This should definitely help.

  8. Awesome info! Really surprised how big of an impact an SEO provider’s location has on whether or not a client chooses to work with them. That’s not something I’ve ever really considered. The data surrounding a client’s web savviness is also really intriguing. That makes me think we need to place more importance on educating our clients on the work that we do for them – more education and less reporting. Really appreciate the work you guys put into this and your willingness to share! Will definitely be linking to this content over on our site at Kite Media.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Garrett, thank you. I 100% agree: the data on web savviness was something I hadn’t put much thought into. But it does make sense: if a client doesn’t understand what they’re getting, they’re not going to be happy. Especially with something like SEO that’s not always intuitive (for example, they may not understand the value of links, keywords… even rankings).

      1. Yes, for sure. Thanks so much for compiling this. Will definitely become something we reference as we continue to make changes and improvements to how we structure our team and the work we do.

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          👍👍👍

      1. Suzan Avatar Suzansays:

        Hi Brian,
        could not agree more with web savviness correlation and people may not understand what they are getting. Yet, I wonder why those companies seemingly not understanding anything about SEO would spend money on that subject at all? In our organization, each spending has to be approved based on value and or business case for our organization. Simply stating “we need SEO because everyone else is doing it” would not release any funds at all…

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          Hi Suzan, good point there. I think that many clients understand the idea that ranking higher in Google for a specific keyword will bring in more customers. But they may not understand all the stuff that goes into getting higher rankings (content, links, title tags etc.). I think that’s where the disconnect is.

  9. Hi Brian,

    I almost fell off my chair when I read the stat that 70% of customers would not recommend their SEO provider!!

    Thanks for compiling this really useful set of data.

    Josh

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Josh. I was surprised to. But then, when I thought about all the bad experiences people have with providers, it made sense. Either way, it’s a great opportunity for legit agencies to stand out!

      1. In our experience this high % is due to the overall lack of transparency amongst agencies and freelancers with their clients. Too often agencies are more worried about there bottom line than being transparent with the client. It creates a ‘churn n burn’ environment at least here in the UK it does!

        The language used can also play a big part in this. When you hear SEO/backlinks etc its got such a bad rep that its an instant put off. But as you said Brian, using words like leads and sales as replacements definitely helps.

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          👍👍👍

    1. Fabio Avatar Fabiosays:

      I think there are also jealous customers 😁

  10. Great stuff, Brian. This survey helps us align our marketing efforts towards search and word of mouth instead of anything other outreach methods. Also, I think that if you provide value, clients will stick longer.

    BTW, what’s the average monthly fee AGENCIES charge according to your survey? Is it somewhere in the 1K-2K range?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Arjun. I’d have to crunch the numbers on that subset. But with the data we analyzed, we found that agencies tend to get paid significantly more than freelancers.

  11. Hey Brian,
    Most SEO and Digital Marketing Agencies give guaranty that they can rank our keywords or business top on Google but there is no guarantee in SEO. So I have a question that how they suppose that they can rank our business #1 on Google.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Jarvis, do you think that most marketing agencies guarantee rankings? Some do for sure. But I feel that most try to give clients realistic expectations.

      1. Yes, you are right but how they can give guarantee about ranking? I hope you understand what I’m saying.

  12. Great post as usual, Brian. I was surprised that over a quarter of respondents said getting social media followers was very or extremely important to them… from an SEO service provider. I wonder how much of that is confusion about what SEO is on the part of the clients vs how often agencies/freelancers offer both SEO and social media together. (Probably more the latter.)

    It also stood out to me that 30% of business owners said they would recommend their SEO provider to a friend or colleague. On the one hand, that is astonishingly low — 70% would not!

    On the other hand, if you run an agency you should clearly be regularly asking your clients for referrals. Even if “only” 30% of them actually provide them, that could have a profound impact on your business (especially considering your other statistic about referrals being the #1 lead/client source).

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Kyle. I think you hit the nail on the head: in my experience many agencies bundle SEO, content… even web design… into their packages. In fact, most small business owners just want someone to take marketing off of their hands. And that includes social media.

      Also, yeah: referrals are super underrated! If you have a good relationship with your client, you really have nothing to lose by asking.

  13. Great Article! We noticed a while ago that costs and location are keys when people choose a SEO provider. However we didn’t conduct a survey as good as yours:) Thank you for the thorough insights! I guess that it took you a few months to gather all these informations together 🙂
    We are a Web & SEO agency montreal based and indeed, many of our clients visit us because they are disappointed with other agencies services. Some agencies tend to promise the moon but deliver poor results (or just have no idea what they are doing in Marketing) .
    Did you notice that some clients are more concerned about social media reputation than to be found on Google?
    Have a great day!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Sarah, thank you. Our data is similar to what you found: most clients hop around to different agencies before finding a good one. We actually found that most clients weren’t super interested in social media as a whole (although, to be fair, we didn’t look specifically at reputation). In fact, the vast majority of the clients in our panel weren’t super interested in the approach. They just wanted more leads and customers.

  14. Mohit Avatar Mohitsays:

    Awesome insights…Surprising to see brands want more traffic and brand awareness otherwise they are always after leads…Thanks again Brian

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Mohit, you’re welcome.

  15. I find it very validating and scary that the turnover rate so high for SEO services, I feel our company is pretty good at retaining customers, but what I learned from this is to set clear and defined expectations from the beginning of SEO services. Also, starting a word of mouth campaign sounds like a worthy investment. Thanks for the priceless information Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Dillon, happy to help. If you’re surprised by that finding it probably means that you keep clients really happy!

  16. These are great insights! I’ve forwarded this to my sales department and will be using some of these in my own communications with clients. I think it’s very interesting that “Only 30% would recommend their current SEO provider to a friend or colleague” however most companies find their SEO service through referrals. Tells you how very important it is to make sure your clients are happy, have proper expectations and are educated about the SEO process.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Laura, thank you. You’re the second person to mention referrals already today. Such an underrated way to get clients!

  17. Excellent post Brian! Thank you for sharing this helpful and important information. This is an extremely interesting study.
    Btw – I just listened to your interview on the Ignite Visibility podcast. Awesome job! It was great to hear you go into the detail and the value of creating a study just like this post.
    Thank you for all of your support for entrepreneurs. Your advice is priceless!!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Curt, thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this study and my podcast with John.

  18. I totally get how people are more satisfied when they pay more for SEO.

    A $500 package is really basic and you can only do so much with it as an seo.

    What’s surprising to me is that most people find seos thru referrals and not online!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Arash. Yup, it made total sense to me too.

  19. Great post Brain! Some good takeaways from this. I don’t know how anybody is able to do decent SEO in 2019 with 500$. No wonder these business are disappointed. Like with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Well said, Daniel!

    1. Daniel, if my people were paying me $500 a month, I would turn them to solid gold. I think a solo operator could help a decent enough amount of people at this rate to both provide good results, and earn a decent income.

      1. Dan K, if you don’t mind sharing, I’m seriously curious what can you achieve with 500$ and how much is left for you after doing meaningful work for the client. We are trying to be a profitable business, right?

        1. I have lots of people on my white label seo plan which cost $500/mo. Now, technically, my white label partners charge $699/mo for the same plan but I’m doing it for $500/mo profitably and we can typically get results in 6-12 months with this plan. So it is possible.

        1. +1. Dan K – I’d be curious what some of your go-to strategies would be with a $500 budget while still making it worth both your and your client’s time? You sound confident.

    1. Muhammad Noman Avatar Muhammad Nomansays:

      100% Agree . 500$ is very low price for good SEO. The normal price of SEO is around 1500$ to 2000$.

  20. Kateryna P Avatar Kateryna Psays:

    I think so, now the individual approach to the client is still important. Template companies do not fully provide sales growth, do not delve into the essence of the company’s activities, and take little time to promote a website or blog …

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Exactly. That’s why clients that spend more tend to be more satisfied. The agencies have more resources to actually help.

  21. Interesting study. This study seems to have surveyed companies at a lower price point than our target client, so certain parts aren’t applicable to our service offerings, however, it is still interesting nevertheless.

    It is also satisfying to see that we outperform the average SEO company shown in this report!

    In addition to the reason cited, it is also that clients have a lack of time to invest in the SEO from their side, in addition to a lack of understanding as to the metrics for success. Our best clients are those that have clear objectives, aims and goals. This allows us to align said objectives to a clearly defined strategy for the next 12 to 24 months. We use comprehensive onboarding procedures to gather the required data and help the client to understand that in order to succeed in SEO they must also invest in other areas of their business such as brand, USPs, service offering, processes, resource, assets, website etc.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Aaron, excellent comment. And it matches my experience from when I ran an agency myself. I found that clients that “got it” tended to work out better than those that asked me to “SEO my site”. And it’s cool to see that you’re helping educate clients so they go from “SEO my site” to a partner in the site’s success in Google.

  22. How long a small business owner should pay for SEO? Should he pay for lifetime and every month?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      As long as the provider is delivering results and getting a positive ROI.

  23. A brilliant and very informative post, Brian and the team, as always.

    As an agency that provides both web design and SEO services ALL of my customers came to me initially for web design and I upsold them to SEO.

    I wonder how many of your survey participants are in the same boat?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Robert, thank you. We actually didn’t look into the web design approach. Although, as you said, many SEO clients tend to start off as web design development clients. That would be something cool to check out for the 2020 report.

  24. **Commenting just based on initial summary of findings**, this is bang on with how I feel based on dealing with local companies. I wasn’t expecting that. Less and less people are concerned with social, and that’s good, because it’s such a farce to begin with… And secondly, location is absolutely huge. Being able to help someone out with SEO, and being from the same local region (not just country), is an absolute advantage.
    Thanks Brian for using research to confirm what I’d been both SEEING and HOPING FOR…. You da man.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hey Dan, agreed on all counts. Technically, being the internet, you can find providers from anywhere. But it is nice to have an agency close by that understands the unique needs of the local area you serve.

      1. For sure you can hire ANYWHERE, but in the great red ocean, sometimes the local fish just tastes better… (That’s a double metaphor for us this afternoon… Red Ocean strategy… And, ummm eating fish!)

  25. Great post as usual Brian. With regards to “reviews”… I am curious if there were any specific factors that influenced their decisions. Meaning, was it # of reviews… review scores… or the comments from the reviews.?

    Also, you mentioned Yelp… but were Google & FB as important in the “reviews” or was it really Yelp that had the most influence?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Adam, thank you!

      We didn’t get super granular with reviews (in terms of what people looked for in the reviews). We also didn’t look at which platforms clients considered most important (I just mentioned Yelp because it’s one review site that people use to find providers). Both would be great things to look deeper into in the 2020 report!

  26. Enzo Caputo Avatar Enzo Caputosays:

    My experience running the website and the YT Channel of an international law firm is that it’s impossible to make serious SEO with USD 500 per month only. You have to invest at least a couple of thousand dollars per month to achieve results. SEO is too complex and needs much time for education. The owner can’t estimate the benefit if he has no SEO education. The client has to invest in his own SEO knowledge.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Enzo. That’s been my experience as well.

  27. Brian, really awesome SEO survey!! Great points. One point I think it would be great to know more about is the frequency of communications with clients. Hopefully next one you can include about that.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Marcelo, thank you. And great suggestion for the 2020 version.

    1. Excellent post. We spend around half of the amount or even less on monthly basis. Planning to raise the amount.
      Thanks for great insights.

  28. Brian

    Thanks for another fantastic post.

    I thoroughly agree with almost all points and my experience as an agency owner matches up.

    I am curious however how you selected the participants for the study? Could you possibly give us more in-depth info on the businesses who responded?

    Thanks!

      1. Really appreciate it Brian, thank you!

  29. We’ve stopped taking clients that won’t agree on a budget.

    We used to just be like “hey, we can do X amount, but your competitors seem to be doing Y amount of marketing. We suggest much closer to Y. Otherwise we can’t guarantee ideal results.”

    Lone behold they are so surprised when they’re traffic is climbing at a snails pace. Plus I feel like we lose money on these clients. Our $10,000+ clients aren’t calling us everyday, and we have a professional communication channel. With the lower budget clients they tend to call me every other day.

    I understand with limited budget, the client has more time to hassle. It’s just not the type of marketing I enjoy doing. Feels like more customers service than marketing at that point.

    Great stuff Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hey Ryan, that’s an interesting approach. But it does make sense (especially if you’re an established agency like yours that can land high-end clients).

  30. Great survey Brian, this would make a good Infographic 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Emin.

  31. But I think the budget depends on their business categories.
    Such as a landscaper v’s a cleaner. A Landscaper earns an average of $6k per job and the cleaner earn an average $150 to $200 per job. Think about it, if an SEO expert brings 10 clients per months then why not a landscaper pay $3k/m for the SEO?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s true, Tangeer. Same with lawyers, surgeons etc.

  32. Absolutely a very nice article completely out of the box I can say, till now we read only about traffic, backlinks, seo, on page bla bla. I think this is all for our ownself, i.e for every SEOs.

    From this personally I feel getting results and then maintaining the are key takeaway and I could also see that we should by and large avoid low paying clients as they are more like to expect quick results which in turn gets negative results.

    Overall It was nice post Brain, I liked it and I hope probably I am first to read and comment lolo 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thank you

  33. Hi Brian,

    Thank you very much for this post. We are learning a lot from you and your website, it is so inspiring!!!

    Best regards from Iceland

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Albert, you’re welcome. Glad you learned some new stuff from this report!

  34. Thank you soooooo much for this great breakdown Brian. I have been trying to figure out how to word my location to potential customers in different locations all week before I start cold/emailing calling. Now I am getting ready to change my copy on my website…This helped a lot.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Patricia, you’re welcome. Happy to help.

  35. Nice survey. Maybe next time you ask them – How long is take until they are break even? Spending on SEO = Net income from new clients acquired clients
    by that SEO service.
    And from your experience, how long is take to that happen with good SEO agency.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Dragan. It’s really hard to say because it depends a lot on the business. For example, an SEO agency can drive lots of traffic to a website. But if it’s not optimized for conversions, the ROI won’t be there. And it’s not necessarily the agency’s fault.

  36. Brian,

    Did you get the sense that some or many clients were lumping PPC in with SEO? The references to “immediate results” and “see us on many platforms and ads” seem to indicate that this may be the case. I’d be curious to learn if, and to what extent, clients lump all SEM under the SEO label. Thanks for some great research!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi John, really good question there. We really tried to emphasize SEO services. But you’re right: there may have been some clients who also wanted PPC or had PPC-like expectations from SEO.

  37. Jack Avatar Jacksays:

    Man you Just do a bad reputation for the seo experts…
    Why?
    People’s gonna search seo service on google and they found your post and they will understand seo cost is $500,
    They may never gonna pay us more then $500
    Please dont make this post viral, better change the keyword and make the post just for a Survey not service.
    Hope you will understand
    Thanks

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Jack, we also say that spending <$500 correlates with lower satisfaction.

  38. Karen Avatar Karensays:

    Great article, Bryan!
    There are many takeaways for me, however the most enlightening was the need for.client education. It makes perfect sense. If the client isn’t aware of the difficulties in upping their SEO, the greater the chance of them becoming dissatisfied with the service!
    Thanks for another engaging post!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Karen, that was a big takeaway from me too. The interesting thing was that most clients agreed! They literally told us that they just didn’t get it or know how to contribute.

  39. Hi Brian, This is both an insightful and useful post. Much appreciate the effort in carrying out such a detailed survey. Thanks as always. For me, it reinforces the important of SEO in terms of SERP ranking and the emphasis/importance companies place in it. My main takeaway from this is that clients don’t rate growth on social media as important. This poses questions. Has social media’s role in business been blown out of proportion? Is this the beginning of the end for Instagram influencers? To be continued in another post perhaps?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Hazel, you’re welcome. That finding struck me as well. I think that there’s a place for social media. But as you pointed out, it was overhyped for a long time and most small business owners have caught on.

  40. SEO Survey report is really amazing brian. I learned new things from here and implement on my blog right away

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      👍👍👍

  41. I agree with jon d comment, the most clients expect PPC results in SEO. Maybe they lack that information or awareness about Difference in PPC and SEO. In the end for them only matters is results. But as a service provider have to understand their needs and have to make them understand whether they need PPC campaign with such small amount or better SEO with some good fees, because efforts and time investment is more

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Reena, that’s my take as well: many clients don’t understand the differences between PPC and SEO. And you’re right: it’s ultimately on the service provider to explain that difference (and the value the service provides) to each client.

  42. Thanks Brian to post such important statistics about SEO services.

    My question is that why those clients not satisfied that pay less than $500 per month?

    Do they expect a high percentage of growth in their business by doing SEO or SEO companies unable to give good result in less than $500 per month?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Abuzar, I think many clients do have unrealistic expectations about what $500 can get them.

  43. Divyanshu Jangid Avatar Divyanshu Jangidsays:

    Great post, Brian! Lot of takeaways for me.

    Can you tell me what comes under “SEO services” if you charge $500 or $1000.

    As per my knowledge, I found some agency charge separately for Link building which I think is a essential part of SEO. So what the agency people do in the SEO services.

    And the second essential part is content (most probably if you are trying to increase blog traffic or using it for link purpose ), so do SEO services charge extra $$ per article?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thank you. It depends a lot on the provider. For some, it includes link building, content, keyword research… the works. For others, it’s more of like monthly SEO maintenance.

  44. Charlton Mumo Avatar Charlton Mumosays:

    Well put: some clients will walk away if they don’t understand how SEO works. Most business owners know SEO is vital to their online presence but they just don’t understand it. It’s important for SEO agencies to educate their clients.

    A client will stick around if he or she knows the effort, time, and money it will take to beat their competition before customers can start flowing in from search engines.

    As a writer, I have met all types of clients. Quite a large number of them are always demanding for a keyword stuffed blog post after learning about keywords, user intend, and some onpage SEO from weak SEO wannabe websites and inexperienced friends.

    Please people, keep in mind that Google now counts ‘how long a visitor sticks around on a website’ as a ranking factor!

    A good post needs a keyword strategy that is rigid enough to please Google and your visitors as well.

    The very same visitors that you want to convert into paying customers are slowly becoming immune to the keyword stuffing bullshit and they will quickly hit back if they can’t see value in your Content.

    Remember, the shorter the time a visitor spends on your website, the more it will hurt your rankings and your CTR.

    Thanks Brian for the time and effort you put into creating this masterpiece. Please agencies, educate your clients. It will be a lot easier to deliver content.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Charlton, awesome comment. Well said.

  45. Hi Brian, thank you as always for the helpful and delightfully visual results.

    I’m glad to get extra validation that client education efforts are worth the effort. A few hours worth of training can get SEO providers days or even weeks back in productivity – plus it actually seems to improve client retention.

    All in all, solid data. Thanks again!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Abby, thank you! Good to hear that your experience aligns with our data. It looks like client education is can make a huge difference in the relationship.

  46. I appreciated the stat(s) on how agencies are twice as likely to win $1-2k clients than freelancers. This was something I felt to be true but could never quite find the data to support it. Last August I wanted to test this theory, so I started marketing myself as an agency (rather than a freelancer) and it certainly had a significant effect on contract size as well as client respect. Although I still have a few clients leftover from my “freelancer” days who still try to treat (and pay) me like an intern, pivoting to an agency was the smartest move I’ve ever made.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Brian, that’s a SUPER interesting example of this finding playing out in the real world. Thanks for sharing!

  47. Jair Avatar Jairsays:

    As always, Backlinko and Brian Dean always provide information from within the SEO sector, as current and as easy as possible to understand. I actually found 40% of this to be rather common sense and another 20% educated guess but the last 40% was completely new, unthought about genuine and great SEO education I to the 2019 SEO client/provider relationship. There are so many facts here that you can optimize instantly for your current client base and for new prospects as well. I did however feel there were a few points that should have gone a little deeper as the investigation into some points seemed to drop off abruptly.
    Overall, Brian Dean and Backlinko have hit this out of the park even more so than the 2018 rendition. You do amazing work Brian and I always strive to keep your level of service as my own standard within my business. Keep up the amazing work and I can’t wait for 2020, this will be a very interesting year by my prediction.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Jair, thank you. I’m glad you learned some new stuff from today’s report and I appreciate the kind words.

  48. Informative study, being SEO-side it’s interesting insight.

    Quick typo on the “small but significant percentage” visual – just wanted to help out 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Sam!

  49. Brian, did you happen to confirm that the clients knew the difference between SEO and Google Ads? I’ve found that several small business folks I’ve talked to (especially in rural areas) get them confused.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Skyler, we actually didn’t. But you’re right: that may have been a cause of confusion. That’s something I want to address in the 2020 report.

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